The newly elected DA mayors running SA’s main metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane said they are ready to work with all political parties to deliver basic services to communities and bring about political stability for the next five years.
The country’s 257 municipalities are at the coalface of service delivery, but most are teetering on the brink of collapse as they struggle to deliver on their mandates due to financial challenges spawned by maladministration, looting, corruption and malfeasance.
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana, during his medium-term budget policy statement recently, announced an allocation of more than R450bn from the fiscus over the medium — term expenditure framework to assist struggling municipalities. He stressed that the government’s immediate task is to build capable local government that delivers services effectively and efficiently.
DA mayors at the helm of the metros of Johannesburg (Mpho Phalatse), Ekurhuleni (Tania Campbell), and Tshwane (Randall Williams), say they are determined to change the face of local government by putting the interests of communities first and implementing policies to improve the people’s socioeconomic conditions.
On Friday, all the newly elected DA metros across the country attended the party’s governance workshop in Johannesburg to map out priorities for the next five years.
Speaking to Business Day, Campbell, who snatched the mayoral chain from ANC councillor and former mayor Mzwandile Masina with 116 votes against his 105 votes, said she wanted to make the manufacturing hub of Ekurhuleni a lot less dependent on Eskom.
“If you have an unstable grid, it has a huge impact on industries, they cannot employ people. One of the priorities would be to stabilise the grid, that will be a long-term project,” she said.
Campbell, who has been a councillor for more than two decades, said she would be “quite demanding” on staff to do the jobs that they are paid to do. She said gone are the days when it took 10 days to replace a bulb on a street light.
“We want proper turnaround times and not nine days to change a normal fuse as is the case now.” She said she would not let Ekurhuleni collapse and that delivery of services would be a non-negotiable.
Campbell said she had spoken to a “lot of the opposition parties within council” to establish a working relationship with them and hopes to announce her mayoral committee once the party’s leadership concludes negotiations at national level.
Phalatse, elected Joburg mayor with 144 votes, trouncing ANC councillor and former Joburg mayor Mpho Moerane who got 121 votes, stuck to her campaign promises of fixing the billing system, infrastructure backlog, and opening the city for more private investment to address some of its challenges.
DA shadow local government minister Cilliers Brink, who introduced the newly elected DA mayors, quipped that while Joburg was the economic heartland of SA, it seemed as if its arteries that keep the metro pumping were clogged and needed a real doctor to fix — a reference to Phalatse, who is a qualified medical doctor.
“The city of Joburg is broken,” said Phalatse, highlighting the need to “invest heavily on infrastructure” to address the backlog on road network, electricity grid, and provision of water. She also wanted to open the city for more investment to create jobs and grow the metro’s economy.
The country’s richest municipality, which contributes nearly 20% to GDP and about 40% to Gauteng’s economy, has been plagued by numerous challenges in recent months that caused the city to seek help from the private sector to repair potholes.
Phalatse said fixing the billing crisis was one of her priorities. “A lot of ratepayers are discouraged by bloated, incorrect bills, and are losing faith in the city’s ability to function. We need to restore trust ... by addressing the billing queries that we have,” the single mother of three said. She added that revenue collection is the “lifeblood of any municipality, it is important that we get that right”.
Phalatse, who served as health and social development MMC in 2016-2019, said in her acceptance speech that she intended, in the next few days, to have consultative sessions with all political parties represented in council to solicit their inputs on the DA’s plan for the first 100 days in office “to make it as inclusive as possible”.
Randall, who was elected unopposed last Tuesday, after the ANC decided to not field a candidate, has appealed to political parties to work together in enhancing the quality of services provided to communities.
“There will most certainly be occasions when we will debate and differ. That is to be expected in any competitive democratic environment and we should embrace these occasions to interrogate and scrutinise political decisions. However, we should not let such occasions derail the work of the administration or lead to instability in our city.”
Randall has described the capital city as a place of great potential and hope, saying it was the “beacon to the world for our country”.
DA leader John Steenhuisen described the party’s newly elected mayors as an “excellent crop of public servants. These men and women are going to play a critical role in shaping the immediate future of our country.”
“The message to the mayors is this: look beyond your own benches, seek partnerships, take help when it’s on offer,” he said, adding each mayor will receive a copy of the party’s “ready to govern” guide on legislation, budget, and caucus management, among other things.
The mayors needed to hit the ground running in all the municipalities, he said. “What happened on November 1 has been a watershed moment for our country’s democracy and history ... The country will get a lot better over the next five years. We have now entered an era of coalitions and co-operative governance.”
Steenhuisen said talks with political parties that have not yet signed a coalition agreement with the DA were ongoing.
Monique Bennett, a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa, a research and advocacy non-profit organisation focused on improving governance across the continent, said the point of political parties forming coalitions “is for them to gain some level of political power”.
“Of course these political parties having differing ideologies and agendas, however, in terms of municipal elections the focus should be on delivering services to the community no matter what,” said Bennett.
“I think what’s crucial is for political parties to have consistent dialogue that ensures enough benefits offered to members who conform to the written agreements. All voices must be heard and taken seriously, no one single party can claim outright control even if they technically won a majority. I think making each member feel as important as the next will avoid clashes and stalemates.”
With Thando Maeko
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